Posts

Warren Louw is a freelance illustrator and character designer. He is one of the most celebrated new artists from South Africa who is self taught and works primarily in digital media. His ability to create images with meticulous detail and imagination has brought his illustrations to various publications, advertisements and websites across the globe.

Well recognized for his mastery of his renditions of beautiful women and a perfectionist in his digital illustrations, his work has been featured in print publications such as ImagineFX Magazine, various UDON Entertainment’s Capcom tribute books as well as the covers for UDON’s Dakstalkers graphic novel and DC Comics’ Power Girl.

Let’s now enjoy a small selection of his amazing digital paintings, and remember to visit his website or his deviant art profile to see more!

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

Digital Painting by Warren Louw

All Artworks are Copyrighted by Warren Louw and are displayed here with his kind permission!

I was a bit bored to write a design article today, so instead i will talk about the most useful skill i ever learned as a designer: Time management.

Sad as it is a week has only 168 hours. And if you find yourself wondering more than once were they have gone, well you are not the only one. As our daily life become more and more demanding from us utilizing efficient time management is more crucial than ever. This is truer if you are a freelancer or work from home. Your work hours and your free time can blend to a point where you no longer are able to draw the line.

There are many people who avoid using time management techniques, claiming they find it restricting or going against being spontaneous. In reality though, they most likely have tried it at least once, and quickly abandoned their time management system because it couldn’t work.

The main problem behind time management systems that fail are most often that they are unrealistic. Time is like money, you can’t spend more than you have. If you try squeeze more activities than your time budget allows, most likely you will become exhausted, or alienate friends and family, and eventually lose every interest in managing your time, since it won’t be working as you expect.

In addition to that people most often forget that time management is to help them have more free time while still doing more things than before. Going to the other side and allocating every second of your newfound free time for work would lead to an unbalanced life eventually, and again cause your time management system to fail.

If you need effort to manage your time you are doing it wrong.

Every journey begins with the first step…

For the purpose of this short guide we’ll start with a time study. To start planning your time, you must first know how you are spending currently your time. Dedicate a week in recording your daily life; observe where and how you spend more time. Resist the urge to judge yourself just observe and record for now. Try to keep track of everything you did during the day even the most mundane things like eating, or taking your newspaper break, or randomly meeting an old friend and talk in the bus stop. And the most repetitive things you do routinely like, surfing the internet or watching TV, going to work or for shopping etc.

You can use an Excel Sheet to track your time or a special app in your smartphone. Personally I am using Google Calendar since I can access it and update it from both my desktop computer and mobile devices.

Whatever method you choose to use by the end of the week you should have a clear idea of where you have been spending most of your daily time. You might find for example that your 5 hours daily gaming in Facebook can be a real time sinkhole. Or you waste too much time on meetings, or maybe with transportations to go from place to place. The more accurate and detailed are your records of your previous week the more accurate you can assess where your time have gone.

Now you can evaluate what you have learned. It would be easier if you grouped logically these activities. For example meetings, appointments, daily tasks, work, study, unexpected events and so forth. Try the following questions to help you get started with your evaluation:

Are there things that take too much time? If so what you could change to reduce the time spend in that area?

Are things that you thought were taking you less time, but actually take more? Why is that and what you can do to fix it.

Are you spending time in unnecessary things that you could have avoid doing, and instead have used this extra time with your loved ones or to furthering your goals?

Ok, if by that point you wondering: Goals? What goals? Who needs them anyway? The answer is you need them. Keep reading to find out why.

Without a compass you might get lost in the jungle…

Before we get down to planning our time, there is another extremely important factor you need to think and consider. What would you like to make with this extra time? How will it help you accomplish your Goals? And most importantly what are your Goals?

Sounds like logical questions to begin right? Strangely though, most people are not setting any goals. There several reasons for that. They either think that it’s not something important. Or they might be afraid that they will fail, and so maybe thinking better not to even try than try and fail.

So let’s see why it’s important having goals. Goals are like your roadmap in life or a compass, if you don’t know where you want to go, you can never get there. They can give you a clear sense of direction. A sense of meaning and purpose in everything you do. And every step toward them will make you happier and more confident in yourself and what you can do. They are not meant to dictate how you live or what you do in your life.

Do not confuse the sense of direction, with narrow-mindness. Just because you decided you want to go somewhere today, doesn’t mean you should feel the same way tomorrow. And neither should mean you should shut off your eyes to any other opportunity.

Also try not to confuse goals with day dreaming.

What are the key elements that define a Goal?

Let’s examine some key elements that describe a successfully goal. You must probably have heard at one point or another that goals need to be SMART. This is an acronym that can take different meanings for different people. But however you translate the initials that form the word SMART the bottom line is this:

Goals must be clear, specific and written down. Make lots of money or meet the love of your life is not a goal but a dream.

Goals must be measurable. We must always be able to track if our goal is progressing well or not, and adjust our plan accordingly.

Goals must have a deadline. Setting a deadline can help you determine the realism of your goal and to adjust it accordingly if ends up feeling unrealistic.

Goals must be challenging. Always try to aim high (but also be reasonable), know what you can do now, but try to take it a step further day by day.

Your goals should be balanced among several important aspects of your life, like career, family, health etc. Pursuing one thing and ignoring everything else won’t do you any good in the long run.

Best practice is to have a major goal for every life aspect and sub-goals that support the major one.

How we can set a Goal?

So now that we clarify how a goal should be like, let’s see how we can set one:

Make sure it’s something you really want for yourself intensively, and not something that someone else wants for you. You can never be excited for something someone else wants for you, nor work as hard as it might require.

You must absolutely believe in your heart that your goal is achievable. That translates that is something you can do if you work hard enough. By achieving small but challenging goals one at time will help you build confidence and determination.

I mentioned before that a goal must be detailed, clear and written; you should be reviewing your goals at least weekly. That will ensure they are still something you want to achieve and will also help you refuel your determination.

Wonder why you haven’t already accomplished that goal, these obstacles or barriers might still be in place so you must think of actionable steps to overcome them. That might include additional skills, or help from other people etc.

Determine where you are now and where you want to go. Write down all requirements and resources that you will need. That includes time, effort, money and probably some other unique to the goal, requirements.

Determine if it something you can do and you are still willing to pay the “price” of the requirements.

Make the plan that will help you achieve your goal. Write down the objectives you need to accomplish and the actions you will need to make to achieve those objectives along with their deadlines. Also think of how you will measure if the goal has been successful or not.

Don’t give up no matter the odds, repeat the steps and re-evaluate your goal at any point you think its necessary.

It’s time for action

To start out scheduling and planning your daily life in accordance to your goals, you will need some sort of a calendar. Whichever you choose the important thing to look for, is for it to have hours in the daily format. If it doesn’t have hours you will be having to adding them yourself, so not very good thing to do on daily basis. Your calendar need to be accessible at all times, so if you don’t use the traditional paper planner but a digital one, make sure that it can sync across all your devices.

Here are the basics to get you up and running quickly:

I assume you already have figured out your goals and the objectives you need to accomplish to get to them. So it’s important to start working on those objectives immediately. Set a time every day to do just that. And work on your objectives. Even if it’s for a bit, eventually it will add up.

Set some time aside for unexpected events, and I think the name is a bit oxymoron, since we should always expect them to happen! That contingency time is best to be 1 or 2 hours daily. Of course if nothing unexpected happens you can always put something from your task list there. But it’s far better practice as you will see to have a contingency spot, than fill your whole calendar up, and when the unexpected comes all your tasks will left behind and stack up.

To better organize your casual tasks for the week or day you can divide them in four categories A, B, C & now.

A-tasks are those you must absolutely do, either because they’ll be due soon, or because they further your objectives, or because they return you the biggest reward with the least effort. Put A-tasks on top of your todo list.

B-tasks are those that still need to be done, but can wait to do them later. They don’t have major consequences and are not going to be due any time soon. Put B-tasks below A-tasks in your todo list.

C-tasks are those that if you won’t do neither you nor anyone else would care that much, or tasks you wait some action from someone else. Put C-tasks in a drawer, and remember to check it out every week or so.

As you complete the A-tasks, B-tasks become A-tasks & C-tasks become either B-tasks or remain in the drawer.

Now-tasks are tasks with duration to complete less than 1 to 5minutes, so simply do them now.

When you schedule appointments take into account the time you will need to transport to the appointment place as well.

Always set deadlines and time-boxes for your tasks.

Finally remember that your daily schedule is a living thing, you might need to relocate times, extend or contract tasks duration, and add items if your contingency spots remains unfilled and all your other scheduled tasks are completed.

Know thy enemy

Time management won’t do you any good if you keep up on postponing the difficult or boring tasks that are essential to achieve your goals or are crucial to finish.

The term most commonly used is procrastination, which derives from Latin procrastinationem (“a putting off from day to day,”). In other words do it tomorrow or the day after or never.

Trust me, tomorrow the task will be looking more daunting, because the requirements remain the same, your time to accomplish it has shortened significantly, you are stressed and you feel guilty for putting it off. Congratulations, by postponing the task you made your life more difficult and killed your creativity.

So why people keep evading things they really must do, by escaping to Facebook or Pinterest? Why we keep procrastinating knowing the consequences in stress and the futility of our evasion.

Let’s see the common reasons and some advices for to counter them.

1. You are not really committed on the task at hand

You might think that it’s not something you should be doing. Or that is a waste of time. Or that you have more important things to do.

The real question is why you do have to complete this task in the first place? What will you gain if you do? And what will you lose if you don’t? That train of thought might give you some important insights or motivation to actually go ahead and complete the task. If you still can’t find motivation or reasons to do it, then don’t! Just remove it from your task list permanently and consciously.

2. You are afraid of the task

You might be afraid that you will fail. So you think it’s better not to even try at all.

Or you might be afraid that you will succeed, and then the boss will keep giving you this boring assignment or everyone will be having more expectations for you and so on.

Finally you might just be afraid reaching the end result, not knowing what will happen next, or what should you do after finishing this task.

Remember that everyone is afraid, and fear never goes away. Give it a name & embrace it like an old friend. After all being brave is not the lack of fear, since that would make bravery insignificant. It’s moving forward despite your fear.

3. You don’t know how to do the task

If you feel that you lack the training or the information to work on task at hand then simply get the information or the training. Break the task in smaller more easy to finish tasks. If you are not willing to do so and meet the requirements, then you are not committed to the task so read again advice 1.

Sometimes you actually know how to the task even if you don’t consciously believe it. The advice in this case is “fake it till you make it”. Start working on the task pretending to yourself that you know what you are doing, the results will surprise you in most cases.

4. You put the task low priority and always end up postponing it

That usually happens when the task is boring or when you prefer doing something else instead. Well you would do the task if you were pressed, and eventually you will do it. So you think: why do it now? Let’s leave it for tomorrow or if there is time after everything else is done.

Try to redefine the task in terms of benefits and losses as discussed in 1. If you still find no need to give it higher priority over and over then the task is obviously unimportant for you. Consider removing it from your list, or finding someone else to do it for you.

5. You find it difficult to concentrate

You think I’ll get to the task, but maybe I can check Pinterest a bit first? Hmm let’s also read one more Facebook update! That video is so nice! Let’s watch that too. Oh! That reminded me of a lol-cat photo that I wanted to post for so long in Google+. Let’s tweet it too! Oh and looks like I have new mentions, lets chat a bit! And before you know it, the day has passed…

Take the initiative to confront your concentration issues. Set time reminders, and use a stricter time policy in using the social media. If you really can’t resist, Google for a service that blocks the procrastinate-friendly sites at specified time intervals. Or make this distractions your reward for completing a difficult and boring task.

Nike had it right all along. Just do it!

There are many systems that can help you prioritize and organize tasks, like GTD , The ABC analysis, Eisenhower Method, Pareto analysis, POSEC method and countless others plus their combinations. All can work as easily as not work. Don’t let procrastination stop you.

The key point to remember is this simple truth: having a task list is to prioritize things to DO, so as long they are done the method you follow is irrelevant. For most people, the best method is the one working for them and they consistently use. Searching for the perfect system to organize your life, reading every article on time management like this one, won’t do the tasks for you.

So stop searching for the one perfect system or app that will get you organized and start doing things today! But before that take a few moments to comment below with your own tips, tricks and tools to stay organized and get things done!

Born in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia, on March 24, 1963. Hengki Koentjoro is a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, California, where he majored in video production and minored in the fine art of photography.

Hengki returned to Indonesia to become a freelance videographer/editor, specializing in nature documentaries and corporate profiles, and now lives in Jakarta with his wife Lana and their three children. Hengki is a part time practitioner of the art of black and white photography, which he believes to be his true purpose in life’s journey of expression.

Let’s enjoy his amazing works, and as always you can see more in his Behance portfolio!

Hope you enjoyed today’s article with the stunning works of Hengki Koentjoro! Looking forward to hear your impressions!

See you next time!

(These photographs are presented here because they are licensed as “Creative Commons – Attribution” works and for the sole purpose of promoting photography and the photographer’s work)

Although Internet advertising has exploded, many businesses find that good old-fashioned mediums like printing still play a very important role in their advertising plans. While your customers will expect to get printed items such as business cards or brochures from you, you can do something unexpected by having these and other items printed on unusual materials to make yourself stand out more. Here are a few ideas for five unusual mediums you can print on to promote your business.

Plastic Business Cards

It’s a Catch-22, really. You know that you need to carry business cards to hand out to your clients and to compete in today’s business world. However, your competitors realize this, too. So how do you make your card stand out in your potential client’s wallet–by plastic printing, that’s how.

Plastic business cards give you the option of the sturdiness of plastic so your card won’t get beat up once it goes into your client’s wallet and with options like transparent card printing, you can add an element to your design that your competitors’ cardboard business cards won’t have.

Wood

Wood as a medium for printing has been around for thousands of years. Many of the surviving pieces of art from centuries past were painted on wood. You can give your promo pieces that same sort of timeless appeal. If you’re not sure how to do it, think menus for a restaurant or name cards at a catering event printed on thin wood for an extra classy and memorable touch.

Canvas

In the digital age, pictures are ubiquitous. If you’re printing marketing materials like calendars or inspirational posters to send out as promo items to your clients, think about having these items printed on canvas. If you add a wooden dowel to the top of your items printed on canvas, they will become pieces of wall art reminiscent of the tapestries found decorating the walls of ancient buildings. A promo calendar designed on this medium will wind up hung up on your client’s wall where he can see it and your business name all year.

Magnets

What is a kitchen without refrigerator magnets on the fridge? Without them, most people would have no place to hang notes to their families or their kids’ artwork. Use this to your advantage by having your advertising materials printed on magnets. Your potential customers will see your name every time they open the fridge.

Kid Tattoos

If your company regularly hosts community events, and you want to create a free giveaway that’s sure to draw families to your booth, think about having something printed on temporary tattoos. Make these items something that the kids will love and the parents will remember by having a cute graphic printed on the tattoo and then your business’ logo printed on the paper backing of the temporary tattoo. At your next community events, the kids will remember the tattoo and their parents will remember you.

Wedding pictures are no longer taken by a simple point and shoot process. Many photographers are artistically considering how they could capture the theme, the romance and the rawness of emotions behind your biggest moment of your life.

Boudoir photography

One of the latest trends catching on is boudoir photography. From its name, this photo session is all about taking pictures of your wife to be, posing provocatively. It is usually taken in the comfortable, private and secured rooms such as your home and hotel room. This kind of photography is typically intended as a gift for you.

Pre-wedding photo sessions

Getting your picture taken during the event itself can be a huge hassle. Just imagine: striking a pose every time the camera is in your face. When you opt for a pre-wedding photography, you can save yourself from the constant exposure to the camera. You can set a photo shoot a day before the ceremony, giving your photographer the chance to compile the pictures and prepare a slideshow presentation during the reception.

Vintage style

Even if it is 2012, you can always go back to 60’s or 70’s with your wedding pictures. Photographers are able to create such theme by choosing an antique setting complete with decoration and props. This type of wedding trend is the perfect choice if you want to have nostalgic and dreamy photographs.

Photo booth

Having a photo booth at the reception is increasingly getting popular in weddings. When there is a photo booth, guests can comfortably and freely strike a pose. Also, it is easier to check who came to your wedding by asking your photographer to give you a copy of the pictures in the CD or DVD format.

Cherish the dress

If you want to have a picture of yourself wearing a gown at a different location apart from the venue and the reception, you can choose the trend called cherish the dress. This photo session is elegantly designed to show off your dress in the most fashionably possible at a place or destination of your choice.

The day after shoot

The day after shoot, popularly known as the morning-after photos, is yet another sexy wedding trend most couples are requesting. As the name suggests, the session takes place the morning after the wedding night. Photographers will drop by the home or hotel room to capture the newly married couple genuine happiness and intimacy after the ceremony.

These might be latest trends in wedding photography but it doesn’t mean you should follow them. If you still prefer a traditional style of taking pictures, go for it. Remember your wedding pictures are the only physical memories you can have for the rest of your life so it is important to have it just the way want it.

There seems to be a growing concern amongst many business owners – they fear that their web design company, whom they also trust to host their website and to register their domain name, may be scamming them. Often, the full extent of the company’s power over their clients is not revealed until the client wants to switch web hosts or they want to upgrade their website – why else would the company need to alienate their clients?

There are a variety of ways that a design company may choose to deal with what they have dubbed ‘traitor clients’; those who have decided to take their business elsewhere. They may send them a large bill for switching hosts, often known as a cancellation fee. They may cancel the client’s account completely, which can cause email issues. They may point the domain name to a different website. And they make take the website down until further notice.

It is these sorts of actions that make many people believe design companies are holding too much power over their clients. Why should you be punished for looking for a better deal? You are within your rights to do what you like when you like with your own business, especially as you ultimately own your website and your domain name. This is the reality becoming clear to many clients who have discovered that their design company hasn’t been honest with them.

As with any sort of business venture, there are a number of loopholes in the web design industry that have actually allowed companies to take full control of their client’s web presence. For example, if you haven’t signed a contract specifying that you have sole rights to your domain name or that you will pay certain fees, then there really isn’t much you can do when the design company turns around and takes you for everything you have.

So, how can you go about taking power away from the design company and keeping it within your own grasp, where it belongs? It is recommended that you go out and register your desired domain name before you contact a designer to create a website for you. This way, you will be in possession of all documents relating to the ownership and registration of your domain. This does not, however, prevent companies from scamming you in other ways.

When choosing a web design company to take on the creation of your website, there are a number of questions that you should ask to ensure that they aren’t trying to scam you:

Do you provide a contract for all of your projects?

If I register my domain name through you, will my contract state that I own the name in all circumstances?

If I am late in making payments, does your company policy state that you must cancel the account?

Is it stated in your contract that I cannot switch to a different host at a later date?

At the end of the day, you should be wary of web design companies that do not require their clients to sign contracts for every aspect of the project. Without a signed document, there is no way that you can prove your ownership of the website or even of the domain name – for all you know, the design company is trying to sell the whole thing out from under you.

Article by John Fulton

John has been working as a freelance writer for Zeemo. The company is known to provide excellent and reliable online services such as web development, graphic design, SEO services and web design Melbourne for over a decade now.

If you’re setting up your own business, or simply want to drum up more interest during the difficult economic climate, you’ll already know the power of an effective marketing campaign. But sometimes, nothing beats good old self promotion – and by that I mean getting out there, distributing your business card and making yourself known to potential clients and partners.

The problem is, you won’t be the only person with this idea and if you hand your business card out, chances are the recipient probably has a stack of very similar-looking rectangles of card sitting on their desk. It’s all too easy for people to throw them away, so you need to make sure your business card catches their attention and makes them think: “Hang on a second, this person actually might have something to offer.”

So, where so you start? Well, aside from the obvious information, like your name, job title and contact details, you should consider putting a picture of yourself on your business card. Think about it, if you’re meeting lots of new people every day and all of them give you their business card, you’re going to forget who is who. Maybe you’ll sit at your desk and think: “Oh yes, Brian Smith was the guy with a shaved head, he seemed pretty nice, but who was Mark Robinson? And was Chris Smart the guy with glasses?”

If you have a photograph on your business card the recipient will instantly know who you are when they pick it up and connect your name with your face, meaning they are more likely to think of you when they require a particular service.

The next thing to think of is colours. Most business cards are white with printed lettering. So, imagine you are looking at a desk full of business cards – what would jump out at you? A business card that isn’t white. Consider going for a coloured background that will really make an impact. Red and black are particularly strong colours. However, it is important to ensure the text also stands out and is very readable against such a bold background.

Once you’ve decided on a colour scheme, the next thing to consider are the final details and all the creative extras you can add to your business card to really make it stand out from the crowd and ensure it’s unforgettable. Here’s a list of some things to consider:

3D – Some business cards can be printed so they stand up, fold over and have pop out sections

Die cutting – Specify shapes to be cut into the side of your card, like a bite mark if you’re a caterer

Recipes – Include a recipe if you work in the food industry

Material – Cardboard is boring, try something else

Quotes – Add a famous and relevant quotation on the back

Double-sided – Take advantage of the fact you have two sides of cards and use them both

Stickers – Print one side of your business card on self-adhesive paper

Trading cards – If you run a firm with a few people get trading card-style business cards printed for each member of the team and encourage people to collect them

All of these ideas ensure your business card will offer something a bit different to the rest of the pack and mean it will stick in the recipient’s mind. It’s all about getting yourself noticed and an interesting business card will do just that.

Article by Lesley Sampson

This guest blog was contributed by Lesley Sampson a freelance writer who often blogs about printing and where to find the best 123 Print high quality printing.

Kerem Beyit has been in the digital art area for five years. His vast and amazing portfolio includes lots of book covers, and he has been awarded on CGSociety, CgChannel,Gfxartist, Cggallery, 3DTotal and CGArena.

His works have been published in several magazines, as well as have been included in the Ballistic Publishing albums Expose and Exotique. He is currently working as a freelance artist.

Today we have with us a quite small selection of his many digital masterpieces.

All Artworks are copyrighted by Kerem Beyit and are displayed here with his kind permission.

It’s a pleasure to feature an array of wedding photos by Carlo Carletti – lead photographer of the weddingphotos.it studio based in Tuscany Italy.

Carlo Carletti is an award winning wedding photographer with a unique informal contemporary approach to wedding photography. He was born in 1966 in Tuscany and always been passionate about photography. His talent was exposed very early in life as a creative photographer right from the start with his publications on the landscapes of Tuscany.

What I find interesting about Carlo’s work is the underlying narration of the event – the ability to tell a story and capture the emotions: people don’t remember what you say, what you do will eventually fade away with time, but they will never forget the way you make them feel and this is what makes this line of contemporary wedding photography such an intense narration – a timeless tale which comes to life every time the wedding photo album is viewed.

Carlo’s photojournalist career starts in 1987 as a freelance for newspapers and magazines in Tuscany, but immediately develops a liking for wedding photography as couples discovered Italy as a primary wedding destination. His vocation develops into a career in 1997.

Carlo’s motto: Embrace the Event, Live the moment – I’ll be your narrator